Lionheart
by Kate Valdez
Summary: Long ago, a human girl arrived alone in a wild and savage Narnia, died there, and was given another chance at life by Aslan. As the ages passed and the land became enveloped in ice, the Narnians came to understand one thing: if the son of Adam was a king, then she was a Lionheart. (Movie-verse retelling and hinted OC/Edmund)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hi there, reader! Thanks for clicking on my story! It's a pretty casual retelling/novelization of the 2005 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie with an OC of mine thrown in there. I have several chapters already written, so if you like this and would like to read more, do tell me in the reviews!**

* * *

Lionheart

* * *

 _When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone_

 _Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,_

 _The Lionheart will resume her hunt,_

 _And the evil time will be over and done._

* * *

In the dark night sky of London, German bombers flew silently, blending in with the dull grey clouds that surrounded them so well that they could hardly be seem from the sea of houses below.

What would later be called World War II had just begun the year before.

Edmund Pevensie watched the planes from his bedroom window, listening to the distant rumbles caused by the bombs dropped far away. The boy foolishly stayed where he was, watching the raid with a strange amusement, not quite understanding how close the bombs actually were.

Since the war had started, Edmund's father was called to serve in the army, leaving Edmund, his siblings, and his mother on their own at home.

Another explosion was heard, and it felt slightly closer as the curtains shook from the tremor.

Suddenly, Edmund's door slammed open, letting in a stream of light from the corridor outside that made the boy squint his eyes and wince, and his mother, Helen, rushed in, her face pale.

"Edmund!" her eyes widened in horror at how close her son was to the window, "What are you doing? Get away from there!" Nails digging into his shoulders, she grabbed Edmund, tugging him from the window and ushered him out of the room.

The ground shook as more bombs struck, much closer than before.

In another bedroom in the Pevensie house, Lucy Pevensie cowered under her blankets while clamping her hands over her ears in vain to block out the sound of the explosions. "Mummy!" she shrieked to be heard over the deafening sound of the Blitz, looking as if she was ready to cry.

Her door swung open, and her elder sister, Susan, arrived with a flashlight. "Lucy, come on!" The older girl grasped Lucy's hand, pulled her out of bed, and the two of them ran through the house, heading for the storm shelter outside.

As the sisters sprinted out into the hot and sticky evening air, their mother followed behind them along with their eldest brother, Peter, who was dragging Edmund along.

Sirens blared from various directions and the smell of smoke was nearly suffocating.

Susan arrived at the shelter first and threw open the doors, allowing everyone to pile into the tiny cellar.

But before Susan's mother could close and lock the doors, Edmund's eyes widened in realization before he broke away from Peter and dashed out, running back to the house.

"Edmund, come back here!" Helen screamed, but her cries were ignored as Edmund disappeared into the dark building again.

Without hesitation, Peter climbed out of the shelter too and took off after his younger brother despite Helen's screams for him to stop.

Back in the house, Edmund had rushed to his mother's bedroom where a framed photo of his father in a military uniform stood on the nightstand. But before he could touch it, there was another explosion so close that it shattered the windows of the house and knocked the boy to the floor.

It was a miracle Edmund didn't get impaled by glass splinters when Peter found him sprawled on the ground, desperately reaching for their father's photo. The younger boy just managed to grab it before his brother shoved him back outside, shells falling and explosions triggering all around them as they ran for their lives toward the storm shelter.

The girls were waiting for them just inside the cellar and screaming for them to run faster. Both boys nearly tripped on the shaky, uneven ground, but at last they ducked into the shelter, and Helen slammed the door shut.

* * *

The Blitz forced many mothers to send their children to the countryside where bombings were far less likely to happen, and Helen too had made the decision to put her four children on a train to the rural parts of England.

The station was busy that day, filled with other parents waving good-bye at the children packed into the train.

Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter stood with their mother in the crowd next to the line to board the train, fidgeting with their luggage and trying not to look too sad about leaving their mother behind.

"You need to keep this on, darling," Helen instructed gently while tying a label onto Lucy's coat and then smoothing out her daughter's hair fondly. "Are you warm enough?"

Lucy nodded gloomily and hugged her plush teddy bear closer to her chest before allowing Helen to slowly pull her into a short embrace.

"Good girl," the mother murmured as she forced a reassuring smile at her youngest child and then handed a label to Susan who was able to tie it on herself. Next, she started working on attaching on Edmund's label which was supposed to tell the conductors where the children are to be dropped off in the countryside.

"Country's boring," Edmund commented quietly.

Having finished tying on her own label, Susan looked at him exasperatedly. "Boring is safe," she pointed out.

A sour and slightly bitter expression found its way onto Edmund's face, and he refused to meet her mother's eyes as he mutter, "If Dad were here, he wouldn't make us go."

"If Dad were here, then the war would be over, and we wouldn't _have_ to go!" Peter replied and not without a layer of harshness in his voice.

"You will listen to your brother, won't you, Edmund?" Helen asked gently. When Edmund didn't answer and just looked off to the side, she swallowed and attempted to give him one last hug, but the boy quickly pulled away, still not looking at her.

The hurt that flashed in his mother's eyes went unseen by Edmund.

Helen moved on from her youngest son and now directed her attention to the eldest, Peter, and squeezed his hands in hers. "You will look after the others, won't you, dear?"

Blinking back tears, Peter squeezed back, "I will, Mom."

Satisfied with his response, Helen genuinely smiled and addressed her first daughter, "Susan…"

Susan had been looking at her feet while her mother was speaking to Peter, but upon hearing her own name, she lifted her gaze.

"Be a big girl," the mother patted her cheek as Susan sniffled and smiled weakly. At that moment, Helen heard the whistle that signaled the train would be leaving soon, and she drew in a quick breath to compose herself before nodding to her children, "Alright. Off you go, then."

Without another word, the four children picked up their luggage and slowly shuffled into the line to board the train.

After one of the conductors checked their labels, the Pevensies stepped into the crowded cart, and by a stroke of luck, found a compartment that wasn't already stuffed full of other children. All four of them piled together near the window like all the other kids on the train and waved good-bye to Helen.

The train then left the station with a toot of its whistle.

* * *

The train dropped off Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter at a dingy platform called Coombe Halt. Other than the four of them, it didn't seem like there was anyone else nearby.

The air was fresher and crisper this far out in the countryside, and the quietness was eerie to the children who were not used to it, having spent their whole lives in the city. A dirt road ran by the side of the platform, and it led in both directions to nothing but farmland as far as the eye could see.

The children heard an automobile coming toward them along the dirt road, and they quickly gathered their things and got down from the platform to stand on the side of the road.

Lucy waved at the driver of the automobile, but he didn't even look at them as he drove past, tires thumping over where the railroad tracks cut through the dirt path.

The Pevensies watched the automobile until it was out of sight, all four of them feeling quite uncomfortable being in the countryside with no idea where they were supposed to go. They had been expecting someone to pick them up.

"The professor knew we were coming," Susan said, furrowing her eyebrows.

Edmund fumbled with the paper attached to his coat and tried to read it, a frown etching onto his face. "Perhaps we've been incorrectly labelled…"

Peter turned his head to gaze down the road when the sound of hoof beats caught his ears, and a white horse emerged from over the crest of a small hill, pulling a large wagon.

A stiff looking lady with a pair of glasses perched on her nose was handling the reins, and she stopped in front of the children, side-eyeing them with a hint of distaste.

The children stared back at her; Susan and Peter exchanged uncertain glances. "Mrs. Macready…?"

"I'm afraid so," the women answered drying, looking the Pevensies over. "Is this is then? Haven't you brought anything else?"

"No ma'am," Peter muttered. "It's just us."

Lucy nodded at the woman helpfully.

Macready raised a single thin eyebrow at the youngest girl and said in an unreadable tone, "Small favors." With a roll of her eyes, she jerked her head at the back of the wagon, motioning for them to get on.

* * *

The professor's house came into view after a bumpy and awkwardly quiet ride. It was a large, stone building that looked majestic as if it's been there for decades.

Macready opened the front doors, leading the Pevensies into the grand entry hall of the mansion. "Professor Kirke is not accustomed to having children in his house," she spoke loudly, her voice echoing a little. "And as such, there are a few rules we need to follow." Turning around to face the guests, she paused briefly while bringing them up the main staircase, glaring at them suspiciously before resuming climbing the steps. "There will be no shouting—or running. No improper use of the dumbwaiter. _No touching of the historical artifacts_!" she all but shrieked just as Susan was about to touch the nose of a marble bust that stood nearby."

Susan froze before slowly retracting her hand back, biting her lip.

Edmund tried to hide his snickers.

"And above all…" Macready lowered her voice dangerously as they reached the top of the staircase and passed a tall black door. "…there shall be no disturbing of the professor."

* * *

Through a low hum of statics, the radio played the news about another recent raid in London as Lucy lay in bed and picked at her comforter distractedly, trying not to pay attention to what the news reporter was saying.

"The sheets feel scratchy," she voiced her observation sadly.

It was nighttime, and the four Pevensies stayed in the large room they were given to sleep in during their time with the professor.

Susan sat at the foot of Lucy's bed and smiled reassuringly, "Wars don't last forever, Lucy. We'll be home soon."

Just as Lucy was about to smile back in appreciation at how her sister was attempting to comfort her, she was interrupted by a rather unpleasant comment from Edmund.

"Yeah, if home's still there," the boy muttered sarcastically.

Rolling her eyes at Edmund, Susan gave him a most agitated look, "Isn't it time you're in bed?" she question in an identically dry tone.

"Yes, _Mum_ ," Edmund answered mockingly.

Peter raised his voice, "Ed!"

Edmund let out an exasperated breath, but didn't say anything more. Instead, he turned his back to his siblings and crawled into his own bed silently.

Peter turned to Lucy, eyes earnest, and said softly, "You saw outside. This place is huge. We can do whatever we want here. Tomorrow's going to be great. Really."

Lucy cracked a little smile, feeling slightly better.

* * *

Lucy stared blankly out the window where the rain was coming down in sheets so thick, she could hardly see what was in the distance. _So much for doing whatever we want, like Peter had said yesterday._ She was so very bored, and the game her siblings had come up with to entertain themselves was utterly useless at satisfying her desire for some fun.

"Gastrovascular," Susan read slowly from an old dictionary. She looked up at the other children expectantly and when no one said anything, she sighed, "Come on, Peter! Gastrovascular."

Peter was sprawled ungracefully in an armchair, and sighed for the umpteenth time that day. "Is it Latin?" he asked unenthusiastically.

"Yes."

"Is it Latin for 'worst game ever invented'?" Edmund called from where he was wedged underneath a chair, having resorted to counting fuzz balls under it in his desperation for something to do.

Susan wasn't amused with his joke and moodily slammed the dictionary shut.

Sensing that the dictionary game was getting trashed, Lucy got up from her seat at the ledge next to the window. "We can play hide and seek," she suggested hopefully.

Peter exchanged glances with Susan, "But we're already having _so_ much fun."

"Come on, Peter, please!" Lucy grabbed her brother's arm and shook it.

Edmund did his best not to roll his eyes.

The youngest Pevensie made a sad pleading puppy face at Peter and lowered her voice, "Pretty please?"

At last, a smile that Peter couldn't hold back spread across his face as he looked at his sister, "One, two, three…"

Lucy squealed with delight and instantly ran out of the room as Peter got out of chair and faced the wall, continuing with his counting. Susan and Edmund gazed at each other with matching reluctant eyes before dragging themselves up and hurrying out the door also, not wanting to lose either despite their lack of enthusiasm for the game.

The three siblings skipped all around the professor's mansion looking for good hiding places while Peter's voice echoed throughout the halls. Coming across a large chest sitting in the corridor, Susan was relieved to see it emptied of contents and quietly stuffed herself inside just as Peter counted up to thirty. Meanwhile, somewhere on the other end of the house, Lucy and Edmund found themselves in the same hall way. The boy ducked behind a set of draperies which he apparently "got to first" while Lucy kept running.

The youngest Pevensie eventually came to a door that was unlocked and quickly went through it, hoping for the best since Peter was almost done counting to a hundred.

The room was quiet except for the buzz of a fly by the window, and it had nothing in it save for a large and dirty white sheet covering a large boxy object at the back of the chamber.

Curious as to what odd room she had stumbled into, Lucy slowly made her way over to the sheet and grabbed one end before holding her breath and pulling the fabric away to reveal what it concealed. Her eyes widened with awe and a smile stretched across her lips.

It was a wardrobe made from dark wood and reached from floor to ceiling with curved, intricate designs carved on the door. Something about it gave off a sense of wonder, and it excited Lucy.

The girl pulled the wardrobe door open gingerly, letting a few moth balls roll out before shooting a mischievous look over her shoulder to make sure no one was following her before stepping into the wardrobe. Leaving the door open a crack so she could see outside, Lucy felt quite good about herself for finding such a great hiding place and thought that she would win the game for sure.

"Eighty-two, eighty-three, eighty-four, eighty-five…" Peter's voice was faint and distant now.

Feeling the soft furry coats behind her, Lucy began to slowly move towards the back of the wardrobe, her confidence growing as she kept backing up into the wondrously large closet.

The air was strangely chilly and windy, and it smelled fresh, nothing like the old dusty scent of a large and old cupboard. And for some reason, the wardrobe was still decently lit despite Lucy only leaving a tiny crack open at the door.

Suddenly, her hand touched something cold and wet, and she let out a startled gasp before slowly looking over her shoulder to see what something of that texture could be doing in a wardrobe.

There was snow gathered on the edge of what looked like a tree branch and as Lucy raised her gaze higher, she saw that it was connected to a trunk that supported a medium sized pine. Beyond it, there were even more trees and a brilliantly blue sky hung over it all, creating the image of a winter wonderland. Snowflakes fell lazily but densely, and the forest ground was already covered in at least ten centimeters of snow.

 _This is an awfully big wardrobe_ , Lucy thought as she gazed at the sky and trees with large smile, eyes glittering with awe. After a moment, she looked back in the direction she had come and could still see the vertical strip of yellow light coming from the other side of the door. _The exit isn't going anywhere_ , she thought as an excuse for her to keep walking deeper into the forest and explore more of this enormous wardrobe.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Lucy suddenly saw something that glittered in the sunlight on the ground, and she curiously walked over to it and dug it completely out of the snow.

It was a plain silver ring with a single diamond embedded in the band. Someone must have lost it, but what would anyone be doing in these woods? Lucy dusted off the snowflakes from the ring and slipped it into the pocket of her skirt.

Her shoes and socks got wet from the snow and her thin sweater wasn't nearly enough to keep her warm, but Lucy was able to ignore all of this easily as she became more and more enchanted with her discovery. A few minutes after she started walking through the woods, a single lamp post came into Lucy's view at a clearing ahead.

It looked so lonely, the post covered in a thick layer of frost, a tiny flame burning in the lantern at the top which cast it's warm and yet eerie yellow light on the snow surrounding its base.

Lucy stood beside it and glanced up at the illuminating fire while touching her fingers to the freezing cold column, leaving behind three little dots where the heat from her hand had melted the frost.

 _Crack… Crunch…_

In panic, Lucy whirled around upon hearing was sounded like someone walking in the snow nearby.

 _Crunch… thump-thump…_

She attempted to hide behind the lamppost but it was far too skinny to conceal her.

Then, out from behind a tree at the edge of the clearing, a little man with a scruffy goatee, carrying an umbrella and a few brown packages like he was just through with Christmas shopping, emerged. He had a crown of fair curly hair and rather large ears. And the oddest thing about him was that from the waist down, he had goat legs.

Lucy screamed when she saw him and curled up behind the lamppost in fright.

The little man also yelped in terror, clearly startled by Lucy's shriek, and ended up dropping all of his things. Then, he, like the girl, retreated behind something—in his case, a tree—to hide.

For a moment, neither Lucy nor the man with the goat legs dared to come out of their hiding places, but finally Lucy, astonished that the strange man was just as scared as she was, worked up the courage step out from behind the post cautiously. She kept her eyes on him as she slowly bent down and picked up one of the wrapped packages he had dropped.

"Er… ahh—I, uh…juh—um…" the man stuttered when he saw Lucy dust off the snow from his parcels and hesitantly got out from behind the tree also, taking a few steps toward her.

Lucy knew that it was rude to stare, but it was so hard not to look at the goat legs and cloven hooves. "Were you hiding… from me?" she asked quietly as she handed him the package.

"Uh… no," he replied, fidgeting with his umbrella with one hand and clutching his parcel to his chest. "I just—I—I didn't want to scare you," he admitted, lowering his head a little while walking over to gather the other things he had dropped.

Lucy smiled, thinking to herself that the man in front on her isn't as frightful as she had first thought. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you?"

"Well, I'm a—I'm a faun," he answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And what are you? You must be some kind of…" he gestured at their big height difference, "beardless dwarf?"

"I'm not a dwarf!" Lucy cried with a combination of amusement and exasperation. "I'm a girl! And _actually_ , I'm tallest in my class," she informed proudly, retrieving the last of the faun's parcels and returning them to their owner.

Eyes suddenly widening with interest, the faun lowered his voice, "Y-you mean to say that you're a daughter of Eve?"

Lucy frowned, "Well, my mum's name is Helen—"

"Yes, yes, but you are, in fact," he paused, "human?"

The faun's behavior was starting to worry Lucy just a little, "Yes, of course…"

An emotion flashed across the faun's eyes that was difficult to read, and he looked over his shoulder nervously as if making sure no one was watching them. "What are you doing here?" he asked, voice wavering slightly.

"Well, I was hiding in the wardrobe in the spare room and—"

"Spare Oom?" the faun repeated in fascination. "Is that in Narnia?"

Now it was Lucy's turn to perk up with interest, "Narnia? What's that?"

The faun smiled uncomfortably, "Oh dear girl, you're… you're _in_ it." Judging by the look on Lucy's face, he must has realized that the girl had still had no idea what he was talking about. Eager to explain, he pointed the tip of his umbrella at the lantern they stood under, "E-everything from the lamppost all the way to the castle of Cair Paravel on the Eastern Sea…" He waved his umbrella in the general direction of what was probably the east, "Every stick and stone you see, every icicle, is Narnia."

Look off into the distance dreamily, Lucy muttered dreamily, "It's an awfully big wardrobe…"

"Wardrobe…?" the faun whispered to himself, not quite understanding what Lucy was talking about. But he only wore a puzzled expression for a moment before quickly wiping it away and forcing a smile, "Um… I'm sorry. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tumnus."

Lucy broke into a crooked grin, "Pleased to me you, Mr. Tumnus! I'm Lucy Pevensie." She held out her hand expectantly.

Mr. Tumnus stared at it with confusion.

Realizing that he didn't know what to do, Lucy quickly explained, "Oh, you shake it."

"… Why?"

Lucy thought about it momentarily before coming to the conclusion that she didn't know either. "I… I don't know," she exclaimed, a frown coming onto her face. "People do it when they meet each other."

Tumnus chuckled nervously, but nonetheless reached out and shook Lucy's hand awkwardly, making the girl giggle. "Well, Lucy Pevensie," he address in a light and cheerful tone as he opened his umbrella and held it welcomingly over both their heads, "from the shining city of War Drobe, in the wondrous land of Spare Oom, how'd it be if you came and had tea with me?"

Delighted by the invitation, Lucy smiled, "Why, thank you very much! But I… probably should be getting back…" She subtly glanced back in the direction she had come.

"But please, it's just around the corner," Tumnus responded a little too quickly, but caught himself before he did anything else suspicious. "And there'll be a glorious fire and—and toast and tea and cakes…" He smiled hopefully, "And perhaps we'll even break into the sardines."

Lucy smiled apologetically, "I don't know…"

"Oh, come on," Mr. Tumnus insisted, bouncing a little where he stood. "It's not every day I make a new friend."

Not being able to refuse when the faun was looking at her with such earnest and expectant eyes, Lucy decided that staying for a little while wouldn't hurt. "Well, I suppose I could come a little while if you have sardines…" She linked arms with Mr. Tumnus and huddled under the umbrella with him.

"By the bucket load," he added, smiling down at the girl, and then they went on their way.


	2. Chapter 2

In time, the girl and the faun came to a large clearing in the forest where the side of a cliff loomed before them. For a moment, Lucy thought they were going to walk straight into the wall of black stone, but as she got closer she saw a little door that blended in well with the cliff side and was hardly noticeable. She thought it looked rather cute.

"Well, here we are," Mr. Tumnus announced as he fumbled with some keys and opened the door, allowing Lucy to step in first.

For a cave, it was surprisingly cozy and well connected with irregularly shaped rooms, antique furniture and even a small fireplace.

As Lucy looked around the house, she passed by a dresser where a small painting of a much older faun than Mr. Tumnus sat on a little stand. She curiously picked it up to get a better look, as her host shook off his umbrella and locked the door behind them.

Upon noticing what Lucy was looking at, Tumnus smiled fondly. "Ah, now that… that was my father," he subtly indicated the painting with a nod.

"He has a nice face," Lucy observed and then added with a grin, "He looks a lot like you."

Tumnus grew stiff at her comment, and hesitated before muttering quietly, "No, I'm not very much like him at all really."

Lucy didn't seem to notice her host's sudden coldness and carefully set the painting back down to its original position, her voice coming out a bit sad, "My father's fighting in a war…"

Warmth returned to the faun's eyes as quickly as it had left, and he gazed at Lucy understandingly, "My father went to war too." But as soon as he said it, he quickly waved the thought off dismissively. "But that was long—that was a long time ago, before this _dreadful_ winter."

"Winter's not all bad," Lucy said, running her fingers along the spines of several books on one of the Mr. Tumnus' shelves and smiling at some of the odd titles: _Is Man a Myth?; The Life and Letters of Selinus…_ "There's ice skating and snowball fights… Oh! And Christmas!"

"Not here," Mr. Tumnus replied sadly as he brought a plate of tea and deserts from a nearby kitchen and set the treats on the coffee table next to the fireplace. "No, we haven't had Christmas in a hundred years."

"What?" Lucy's jaw dropped open in horror. "No presents for a hundred years?"

"Always winter, never Christmas," the faun repeated, shaking his head in dismay. "It's been a long winter." He sat down in one of the two chairs by the coffee table and motioned for Lucy to sit on the other, handing her a cup of tea when she did. "You would have loved Narnia in summer. We faun danced with the dryads all night, and you know, we never got tired. And music! Such music…" he exclaimed, a dreamy glaze in his eyes.

Lucy smiled and took a sip of tea before looking into the hearth where a warm fire crackled and snapped.

Mr. Tumnus followed her gaze and then asked cautiously, "Speaking of which, would… would you like to hear some now?"

"Oh, yes, please!" the girl said, bringing her cup to her lips again.

Another look of hesitation flashed across the faun's face before he reached onto the shelf above the fireplace and took a little wooden box from the top. Inside was a shiny wooden flute that fit Mr. Tumnus' hands perfectly. "Now, are you familiar with any Narnian lullabies?"

"Sorry, no," Lucy answered truthfully.

"That's good," he reassured, "because this probably won't sound anything like one." Before Lucy could question his odd choices of word, Tumnus brought the flute to his lips and began to play a soft and slightly eerie tune.

Lucy appreciated the music, and let out a relaxed sigh as she stared at the flames in the fireplace again.

A burning log snapped, sending a cloud of sparks flying upwards, and the flames seemed to change form as the girl gazed at them: a centaur rearing up on his back legs, a stag running from hunters, a human shape battling a giant serpent, fauns and dryads dancing around and singing.

Before she knew it, Lucy's eyelids drooped sleepily and the teacup she was holding in her lap fell and shattered as it fell to the ground. She fell into deep sleep.

Mr. Tumnus' cave house was oddly dark when Lucy finally woke up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. The fireplace was burned dry, no candles were lit, and through one of the windows near the door, Lucy saw that the woods were dark. The room was horridly cold and her host was nowhere to be seen. Judging by the darkness outside, she might've been sleeping for hours. Getting up from her chair in a hurry, she whispered to herself, "I should go."

"It's too late for that now," said a feeble voice in the dark corner that led to the kitchen. Mr. Tumnus was on the floor curled up and sobbing quietly. "I'm such a terrible faun."

Tilting her head in confusion, Lucy walked over to her friend, "Oh no… you're the nicest faun I've ever met." Considering she had never met another faun, that wasn't really saying much, but the girl just wanted to comfort him. Taking a handkerchief from her pocket, she bent down to his level and handed it to him kindly. "You wouldn't have done anything that bad."

Tumnus gratefully took the handkerchief and wiped his eyes, "But there is something I've done, Lucy Pevensie. It's something I'm doing."

"What are you doing?"

He made a slightly choking noise before admitting softly, "I'm kidnapping you."

A gasp left Lucy's lips and she instinctively backed away a little, her eyes wide.

"It's the White Witch," the faun explained, "she's the one who makes it winter, always cold. She gave _orders_. If any of us finds a human wandering the woods, we're—we're supposed to turn them over to her…"

The girl tried to stay calm, but the betrayal and hurt she felt was clear on her face. "But, Mr. Tumnus, you wouldn't."

There was a long pause, and Mr. Tumnus refused to meet Lucy's eyes as he sniffled and wiped his nose.

Horror washed over Lucy. "I thought you were my friend."

Tumnus brought himself to look at Lucy with eyes full of sorrow but also hard with resolve. He knew what he had to do.

* * *

In the darkness of night, Mr. Tumnus and Lucy stumbled through the deep snow together, the faun gripping her wrist tightly. "Now, she may already know you're here," Tumnus spoke fearfully, as he helped Lucy over a fallen tree branch. "The woods are full of her spies. Even some of the trees are on her side!"

Paranoia made Lucy immediately glance around at the trees they passed; she had thought they added to the wonder of the wardrobe when she first saw them, but now they appeared ominous, their claw-like limbs jerking in the cold winter wind.

By the time the lamppost came into view again, lighting up a small patch of the dark woods, both Mr. Tumnus and Lucy were panting from running. The faun turned to Lucy and asked urgently, "Can you find your way back from here?"

"I—I think so," she nodded nervously, but she instantly felt bad leaving him all alone perhaps at the mercy of the White Witch. "Will you be all right?"

Tumnus gave a sad but genuine smile and ended up having to use the girl's handkerchief again. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he whispered and then stuffed the soft piece of fabric in Lucy's hand. "Here."

"Keep it," Lucy said almost immediately. When Mr. Tumnus looked at her questioningly, she beamed, "You need it more than I do." It was meant to be sort of a joke to lighten the tense mood, but the best both of them could do was chuckle anxiously.

Grasping Lucy's hands in his, the faun spoke slowly and earnestly, "No matter what happens, Lucy Pevensie, I am glad I have met you. You've made me feel warmer than I've felt in a hundred years. Now, go!" He released her and made shooing motions after her as she ran back in the direction where she had first come.

Not looking back, Lucy crashed through the trees near the wardrobe and was relieved to see the old coats among the branches. Around her, the prickly pine needles soon turned into soft furry fabric. Before she knew it, her feet no longer made crunching noises as they hit the ground but the hard clack of the soles beating on the wooded floor of the wardrobe. Stumbling out of the door at last, she didn't pay attention to the daylight that streamed in through the windows in the spare room, and only thought of reassuring her siblings that she was all right.

"One hundred! Ready or not, here I come!" Peter's voice echoed as Lucy ran through the halls near the spare room.

"It's all right!" she shouted, running past the draperies she and Edmund had fought over before. "I'm back! I'm all right!"

Edmund stuck his head out from a gap in the draperies, wearing an annoyed expression as his eyes landed on Lucy, "Shut up! He's coming!"

Before the dark haired boy could retreat back into his hiding place, Peter turned a corner down the hall and saw them, making Edmund sigh irritably that Lucy had caused him to lose. The eldest Pevensie regarded Lucy with slight confusion, "Lu, I don't think you have quite got the idea of this game."

Upon hearing this, Lucy's expression matched Peter's. "Weren't you wondering where I was?"

"That's the point!" Edmund drawled sarcastically, looking at Lucy as if she was a lunatic. "That's why he was seeking you."

At that moment, Susan heard the commotion and arrived in the corridor where Peter, Edmund and Lucy were. "Does this mean I win?" she asked, not picking up on the atmosphere.

"I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore," Peter informed.

At this point, Lucy noticed how bright it still was outside, as if no time had passed at all since she started the game of hide and seek. "But, I've been gone for hours." The remaining three siblings exchanged suspicious glances, and Lucy could tell that they weren't buying it, but she insisted—there was no way what happened with Mr. Tumnus was just imagination. "I was hiding in a wardrobe," she explained desperately, "and there was a whole forest in it! I met a faun called Tumnus, and we had tea and—"

"You're sure it wasn't just your imagination, Lu?" Susan asked, though it was clear from her tone of voice that she was just humoring Lucy a little, not really taking her seriously.

"It wasn't!" Lucy argued, her voice going a bit shrill. "Come on! Come on! You have to see!" Deciding that it's better to show them than to try and convince them, since she herself might not have believed it either if someone else told her, Lucy instantly turned and ran back to the spare room with her siblings trailing behind her slowly.

Once they were all in the spare room, Lucy ran up to the wardrobe and tugged the door open with a big smile on her face, "Go on. Go in! It's through here."

None of the other Pevensies moved at first but at last Susan rolled her eyes and gave in. She entered the closet and pushed aside the coats to get to the back of the wardrobe. Quickly, she found herself facing the plain wooden back panel of the large storage space and even knocked on the wood a few times, finding nothing extraordinary.

Edmund didn't go in but went to where the wardrobe met the wall of the room, rapped the wood a few times in response to Susan's tapping. The wardrobe seemed normal.

While Lucy stood near the door and smiled excitedly, anticipating her siblings' reaction, Peter, Susan, and Edmund inspected the wardrobe further until finally, Susan came out of the closet. "The only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe," she announced monotonously, causing Lucy's grin to fade quickly.

"One game at a time, Lu," Peter said, his tone coming out colder than he intended. "We don't all have your imagination."

"But I wasn't imagining!" Lucy shouted at them, halting them in their tracks as they were moving to leave the room. "I wouldn't lie about this," she was nearly shrieking as tears welled up in her eyes at how little faith her siblings had in her.

"That's enough, Lucy," Susan said sternly which only made Lucy's small body shake with rage even more.

"Well, I believe you," Edmund stepped forth, shocking everyone else in the room.

Lucy stopped crying for a second. This was unexpected. "You do?"

"Yeah, of course," he looked at Susan and Peter, unable to keep a smirk from twitching onto his lips. "Didn't I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboards?"

Edmund's poorly timed joke was all it took to turn Peter and Lucy's surprise into anger again. Peter took a threatening step toward his younger brother, his calm voice quickly growing in volume. "Will you just stop? You just have to make everything worse, don't you?"

"It's just a joke!" Now Edmund was agitated too at how intolerant Peter was.

Narrowing his eyes at Edmund, Peter shook his head, "When are you going to learn to grow up?"

Something inside Edmund snapped as soon as those words left his brother's mouth. "Shut up! You think you're Dad, but you're not!" he shouted in Peter's face before turning violently and storming away out into the hallway.

When he was gone, Susan sighed irritably at Peter. "Well, that was handled nicely," she said sarcastically. Giving the boy another smoldering glare, the girl left the room also, leaving Peter alone with the sniffling Lucy.

A moment of silence passed before Lucy tried one last time in a small voice, "But, it really was there…"

Peter looked at Lucy for a long time with a flat expression. "Susan's right, Lucy. That's enough." Then, he too exited the spare room.

Lowering her head, Lucy slowly walked back over the wardrobe and closed its door gently, feeling sudden hollow and cold.

* * *

Lucy stared at the flame of a candle next to her bed that lit the dark sleeping chambers, fingers fidgeting with the ring she had found in the snowy woods. What with her siblings not being able to go through the wardrobe, Lucy's own faith that her time with Mr. Tumnus was real started to wane, and she felt a bit uncertain herself.

 _Was I really just imagining?_ Her eyebrows knitted together, and without hesitation she lifted her blankets and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. After feeling around the cold wood floor, Lucy's feet found their slippers, and the girl threw on a pink robe, dropping the silver ring into one of the pockets, before picking up the candle to light her way. Silently, she left the room and began making her way back to the spare room, but she was so occupied with not being detected by her sleeping siblings that she failed to notice that Edmund was missing from his bed.

Remembering the way to the spare room clearly, it didn't take long for Lucy to find the wardrobe again. At first, she hesitated in front of the door but finally gathered her resolve and reached for the knob.

A breeze of cold winter air blew from inside the wardrobe, putting out the flame on Lucy's candle, plunging the girl into what would have been darkness if not for the blue light also streaming from beyond the rows of coats.

Lucy smiled, relieved that Narnia was really there and that she wasn't crazy. Not bothering to look to see if she was being followed, she eagerly stepped inside the closet and did not notice Edmund coming into the spare room just as she allowed the wardrobe door to click shut behind her.

She remembered the way to Mr. Tumnus' house well despite having only been there once, and going to make sure nothing has happened to the faun was Lucy's first priority. Hugging her robe close to her, she hiked through the snow with a sense of apprehension at whether or not she will find Mr. Tumnus at his cave home.

Before long, Lucy arrived at the doorstep of the faun and tentatively knocked on it. No one answered for a long time, but at last the door cracked open an inch, and Mr. Tumnus' appeared, looking out from the crack.

When he saw that it was Lucy, the faun's shoulders relaxed and he let out the breath that he was holding. But almost instantly, he realized that the girl being here wasn't good. "What—what are you doing here?" Mr. Tumnus asked, his brow furrowed with worry.

"You're all right!" Lucy's face broke into a smile, and she surged forward and hugged him around the waist, nearly knocking the faun over.

Mr. Tumnus made a squeaking noise of surprise and hesitated in hugging Lucy back, his arms frozen in the air as he contemplated what to do. At last, his eyes darted toward the woods around his house quickly before he cautiously returning the girl's embrace.

"What's the matter? Aren't you happy to see me?" Lucy questioned hopefully when she pulled away and saw Mr. Tumnus' somewhat uncomfortable facial expression.

"Why of—of course," the faun reassured, biting his lip with uneasiness. "B-but—but, quickly! We shouldn't talk out in the open." He ushered Lucy into his house and closed the door with a sigh of relief before looking at her with serious eyes. "You really shouldn't be here, Lucy Pevensie. You'll be in danger if the Witch—"

"But how could I leave you here on your own after what you did for me?" the girl interrupted defiantly, holding the faun's gaze. "I just wanted to make sure you were still safe," she added in a softer voice.

Mr. Tumnus gave a defeated smile at Lucy's kindness, but there was still something sorrowful about it. "Well then, how about some tea?" he offered sincerely, waving at his cozy sitting room next to the crackling fireplace.

Nodding eagerly, Lucy bounced to the place where she sat during her previous visit and sank into the comfortable chair. While Mr. Tumnus was busy in the kitchen with the tea and snacks, the girl warmed her hands at the fire and glanced through the windows at the world of white outside. "Say, Mr. Tumnus, do people come to the woods often?"

The faun looked up from measuring tea leaves, intrigued that Lucy would ask such a thing. "No, not very much," he admitted, "asides from the occasional woodland creatures."

Lucy toyed with the ring in her robe pocket a little before pulling it out and examining it next to the light of the fire. "Do you know if there might be anyone who could have lost this ring?"

Finished with pouring hot water onto the tea leaves, Mr. Tumnus set the teapot down and lifted the entire tray with him as he made his way to where Lucy was sitting. He put the tray down with care and sat across from the girl with the little table between them.

Lucy handed the faun the simple silver ring before helping herself to one of the cups of tea prepared for her.

As Mr. Tumnus studied he small piece of jewelry, the crease between his eyebrows deepened, and he suddenly seemed fascinated with the ring. "This isn't a Narnian ring," he concluded, "at least it's not like anything I've ever seen before. Narnian jewelry has a more elaborate style—this ring is far too simple. I wouldn't know who could have lost it." With a shake of his head, he dropped it back into Lucy's outstretched hand. "Where did you find it?"

The girl shrugged, "It was on the ground when I left the wardrobe, and I picked it up. I supposed there's no way of finding the owner, is there?" Slipping the ring back into her pocket, Lucy picked up a little cookie from the tea tray.

Mr. Tumnus dropped a few sugar cubes into his own tea and sat back in his chair. "Now then, was your trip back to Spare Oom all right the other day?"

"The other day?" Lucy frowned, "That was less than a day ago, Mr. Tumnus!"

"No—no, I'm quite sure it was a couple of days ago," the faun insisted, a look of confusion crossing his face. "Are you feeling well, Lucy Pevensie?"

Staring at her tea with concentration, Lucy remembered how it seemed like no time passed in her world when she was with Mr. Tumnus the first time, and how at the moment Narnia was experiencing daytime while on the other side of the wardrobe, it was the middle of the night. It was far too difficult to figure out exactly how or why, but at least Lucy could determine that there is not a common timeline between the two sides of the wardrobe, so she should really just drop the topic with Mr. Tumnus.

"Oh well, whatever the case, yes, I got back all right, Mr. Tumnus. Thank you for your concern," she replied with a smile which then quickly turned a little sad, "But my brothers and sister didn't believe me when I told them that I've been here. They think it was just my imagination, but I knew it wasn't."

Mr. Tumnus blinked with puzzlement, "Now, they're your siblings. Why wouldn't they believe you?"

"Well, Peter doesn't really have much of an imagination, and Susan looks at everything logically, and Edmund—Edmund just doesn't take me seriously in general—"

"Wait a moment," the faun's eyes were wide and even a bit alarmed as he froze while drinking a sip of tea. "You—you have two brothers and one sister?"

"Yes," Lucy nodded, resting her head on her hand with her elbow propped up on the armrest and pouted slightly and failing to notice Mr. Tumnus' change in expression. "I'm the youngest, and Peter is usually nice to me, but sometimes he just…" she trailed off, and Mr. Tumnus waited politely for her to continue. "But still, there's no way I could ever hate any of them, even though sometimes they could be a bit mean."

"I never had any siblings," the faun said, giving a weak smile. "My father went to war when I was just a little one, and taking care of just me alone was already tiring enough for my mother."

"Oh…" Lucy couldn't imagine being an only child since she had been surrounded by siblings her whole life, and she suddenly felt bad for the faun, thinking he must have been lonely growing up. "If my brothers and sister ever come here, I want you to meet them, Mr. Tumnus!"

Mr. Tumnus chuckled lightly at Lucy's excitement, and they continued eating their snacks and drinking warm tea until the girl again thought of a question she had wanted to ask.

"Mr. Tumnus?"

"Hmm?"

"Who did you say it was that makes it to where it's always winter, but never Christmas here?" Lucy asked carefully, for she recalled how much the thought of the woman upset Mr. Tumnus.

At first, Mr. Tumnus paused, his face becoming hard, but in the end he set his finished tea down and responded evenly, "I think you mean the White Witch?"

Lucy nodded, "Yes, who is she?"

"Well, she—she," he lowered his voice and leaned closer so Lucy could hear, "she calls herself the Queen of Narnia, the ruler of this land, but she's not the rightful queen. She overthrew the true royal family of Narnia a long time ago, and placed this curse of winter as punishment for all Narnians who had opposed her when she first took power."

"Is she truly that awful?" the girl asked with disbelief. "And there's no one who has the power to stand up to her?'

Mr. Tumnus shook his head at her last question, "We—we did have a few with the power to oppose her—for example, the rightful ruler of Narnia and maybe the Lionhearted hunter—but one has been gone from Narnia for a long time and the other's sacred weapon has been stolen by the Witch. The best we can hope for right now is to not give the Witch reason to harm us."

Narnia had been a magical and perfect world to Lucy when she first arrived, but now the girl knew that even this amazing and extraordinary place had problems of its own, and that thought made her lower her eyes sadly. Now she was sorry she had even brought up the topic since it had made the mood of their teatime so much darker. In an attempt to bring back the jovial atmosphere, Lucy smiled sunnily and changed the subject, "Enough of that, then. What have you been up to since I last left, Mr. Tumnus?"

The faun smiled at her effort to cheer him up and replied animatedly.

Several minutes later, the tray was cleared of all of the tea snacks and the tea pot was halfway empty.

"Would it be all right if I visited you again sometime, Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy was saying as she dusted off her nightgown and got up from her chair, following the faun to the door of the cave home.

Hesitating for a split-second, Mr. Tumnus' face was a perfect mask of inner confliction, but he really couldn't bear to say no to the little girl when she was gazing at him with such large round eyes. The faun himself truly enjoyed their time together, and perhaps it wouldn't hurt if she came again as long as they were careful about it. "Of course, Lucy Pevensie," he agreed with a sigh and gave her small hands a warm squeeze. "Good-bye now."

"Good-bye, Mr. Tumnus," Lucy returned before starting her trek back to the lamppost, occasionally looking back and waving at the faun until his home was out of sight. She felt especially light and happy as she partly skipped back in the direction where she came, and just as she was about to pass the lamppost and go back to the wardrobe, her eyes caught something further a short distance away in the woods.

It was another person, and a rather familiar one from what Lucy could see from the back. Her leg instinctively brought her closer, and she called with a mixture of delight and uncertainty, "Edmund?"

The boy spun around with alarm, but instantly relaxed when he saw it was just Lucy.

"Oh, Edmund!" Joy lit up her face, and the girl ran to him and hugged him around the waist, burying her face in his chest. "You got in too! Isn't it wonderful?"

Hastily peeling her off of him, Edmund subtly wiped the corners of his mouth with his sleeve and demanded irritably, "Where have you been?"

At this point, Lucy was so happy that she didn't even allow herself to be affected by Edmund's sour mood. "With Mr. Tumnus!" she exclaimed. "He's all right. The White Witch hasn't found out anything about him meeting me."

Suddenly, Edmund looked uneasy, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "The White Witch?" he asked hesitantly.

Lucy glanced around them to make sure no one was spying, and then she lowered her voice and leaned closer, "She calls herself the Queen of Narnia, but she really isn't."

If it was possible, Edmund began acting even stranger, fidgeting nervously and refusing to meet his sister's eyes but this time, Lucy noticed.

"Are you all right?" she asked, studying his face with a frown furrowing her brow. "You look awful."

"Well, what did you expect? I mean… It's freezing!" If being defensive wasn't so common for Edmund, Lucy would have been suspicious of his hasty response. The boy rubbed his arms to emphasize how cold he was, "How do we get out of here?"

"Come on," Lucy grabbed Edmund's hand, pulling him along. "This way."

* * *

Susan and Peter were snapped out of their sleep when the large door of the bedroom chamber the Pevensies all shared slammed open and the blindingly bright overhead lights flicked on accompanied with Edmund and Lucy running in loudly.

"Peter! Peter, wake up!" the youngest girl shrieked as she jumped on said boy's bed and bounced on it to wake him up as if he could possibly sleep through her shouting. "Peter! Wake up! It's really there!"

The eldest Pevensie flipped over on his bed and spoke groggily with a small frown on his face, "Lucy, what are you talking about?"

Despite the fact that her brother was already awake, Lucy kept on shouting, unable to contain her excitement, "Narnia—it's all in the wardrobe like I told you!"

"You've been dreaming, Lucy," Susan grumbled dismissively, sitting up in her bed.

"But I haven't!" the younger girl continued to shriek. "I saw Mr. Tumnus again and this time, Edmund went too!"

Edmund froze in the process of taking off his robe as all eyes in the room turned to him. He had been keeping quiet and hoping no one would notice him, but now he cursed his little sister for dragging him into the picture too.

"You saw the faun?" Peter asked half-jokingly.

Edmund shook his head, and it was the truth. For a moment, he thought that maybe he was off the hook as long as Peter didn't ask any more questions.

"Well," Lucy drawled with a sheepish smile as she climbed off the bed, "he wasn't actually _there_ with me. He…" she frowned with genuine uncertainty and turned to face the dark haired boy. "What _were_ you doing, Edmund?"

Oh great. Edmund stood in silence under his siblings' gazes for a long time, conflicted over how to handle this situation while keeping his pride intact and not letting slip that he met a lady who may potentially be the White Witch. At last, he made his decision which he thought was the least troublesome of his options. "I was just playing along," he said as if it was the most obvious assumption in the world. "I'm sorry, Peter. I shouldn't have encouraged her."

Quickly realizing that Edmund was betraying her, just like before, Lucy's eyes began to water and tears started streaming down her face uncontrollably.

"But you know what little children are like these days," Edmund continued, giving Lucy a smug look. "They just don't know when to stop pretending."

Lucy sniffled loudly and fled from the room.

Peter and Susan exchanged aggravated glances before both of them ran after Lucy. On the way out of the room, Peter shoved Edmund away so violently that the smaller boy fell onto a nearby bed.

"Ow!" Edmund complained, but Peter didn't stay long enough to hear him. Anger flared up inside the younger boy so quickly that it would have scared him if he had not been so preoccupied with how much resentment he felt toward Peter at that moment for being a hypocrite about making Lucy upset, for always favoring Susan and Lucy and constantly berating Edmund, for a lot of things. Suddenly the idea of having all of his siblings as servants when he is Prince of Narnia became even more appealing than before.

Meanwhile, Lucy sobbed as she ran through the halls of Professor Kirke's large house. Because she had her head ducked, she failed to watch where she was going and ended up running straight into something warm. A squeak of surprise left her mouth as she stopped in her tracks and looked up to see that she had bumped into a tall man with white hair, a big beard, and glasses who was looking down at her with concern.

Lucy wasn't sure who he was, but she was really in need of comfort at the moment, so she hugged him tightly and wept into his coat.

Seconds later, Peter and Susan arrived and froze when they saw who they had ended up disturbing.

Then, before any of the four people could say anything, angry footsteps came from somewhere behind the old man, and Mrs. Macready appeared with a look of pure outrage in her eyes. "You children are one shenanigan shy of sleeping in the stables—" she abruptly cut off her shouting when she saw the man and lowered her voice in apology, "Oh, Professor… I am sorry. I told them, you are not to be disturbed."

"It's all right, Mrs. Macready. I'm sure there's an explanation," Professor Kirke said calmly, making no move to force Lucy off of him.

The little girl blinked up at the old man with wet, hopeful eyes and hiccupped.

"But first of all," the Professor gently handed Lucy over to the housekeeper, "I think this one is in need of a little hot chocolate."

Eager to follow her employer's instructions, Mrs. Macready's foul mood changed into concern and motherly care as she put an arm around Lucy's shoulders and led her away, "Come on, dear…"

When they were out of sight, Peter and Susan began to head back to their rooms but stopped when the Professor cleared his throat at them.

* * *

Lucy sat in a large chair facing a window while Mrs. Macready worked in the next room over to make her some hot chocolate. She had managed to stop crying and only sniffled once in a while, rubbing the silver ring between her fingers as she looked out at the estate through the glass.

"Here you are, dear," the housekeeper whispered gently, walking into the room with a mug of hot drink and offering it to Lucy.

The girl put the ring down on the low table next to her chair before accepting the hot chocolate with a meek "thank you." She blew into the cup to cool the steaming liquid before bringing the mug to her lips.

Suddenly, Mrs. Macready gasped loudly, startling Lucy so much that the little girl nearly choked on her beverage. The housekeeper was looking at the ring with wide eyes like she had seen a massive cockroach or something. "Where did you find that?" she demanded breathlessly, pointing at the ring.

A little scared of the woman, Lucy timidly replied, "In one of the wardrobes upstairs…?"

Mrs. Macready looked at her as if she didn't believe her at first, but then her eyes softened as she picked up the ring and turned it in her fingers. "I—I haven't seen this ring in nearly twenty years…"

"Is it yours?" Lucy asked hopefully.

"Oh, no," Mrs. Macready shook her head as if it was a silly question to ask. "This was the Professor's. When I first started working for Professor Kirke, someone broke into the mansion, stole this ring, and got away; or at least that was what I thought." The woman let out an exasperated laugh, "To think it was in one of the wardrobes all these years."

"Would—would you like it back?"

To Lucy's surprise, Mrs. Macready shook her head and the smile faded from her face. "No, dear. You keep it," she pressed the ring into Lucy's small hand. "When it first went missing, I didn't know what to tell the Professor since it was a family heirloom, so I couldn't bring myself to say anything. Who knows when was the last time he checked that ring box—he may not even be aware that it's been gone all these years, and returning this to him would only bring to his attention that it's been missing for well over sixteen years. No, dear, you keep it, please."

Lucy nodded slowly and put the ring back into her robe pocket, feeling jittery at having not told the whole truth about where she found the ring, but she decided that it was too late to bring up that she found it buried in the snow in the forest inside the wardrobe instead of just in the wardrobe. The housekeeper's story, however, made Lucy think that whoever the thief was must have gone into Narnia through the wardrobe too then, and this thought made her feel instantly better that there were others besides only herself and Edmund who have been in Narnia.

Before long, Mrs. Macready snapped back to her usual stern and harsh behavior after having actually revealed some human emotions, telling Lucy to finish the drink quickly and get back to bed without causing any more problems for Professor Kirke.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day was a sunny and slightly breezy one, and the lawns around Professor Kirke's mansion were well taken care of, suitable for the Pevensies to play on. They thought it was probably a better idea to take their shinanigans outside rather than risk Mrs. Macready's wrath again

"The crowd goes quiet at Pevensie steps up to the crease," Peter narrated for himself dramatically as he stepped forward, tossing a cricket ball from one hand to the other. "Peter winds up, poises to take yet another wicket!" With exaggerated movements, he bowled the ball at the batter, Edmund, who was staring blankly into space.

The hard ball hit Edmund on the leg with a loud thump, jerking the boy out of his trance.

"Ow!" he shouted and glared at Peter.

"Whoops!" Peter laughed, not sounding as if he regretted it at all. "Wake up, Dolly Daydream," he teased as Susan ran after the ball and threw it back.

Edmund didn't even bother to tackle his brother to the ground which was quite unusually. In fact, he seemed to forget about Peter's offense quickly, resuming his staring at Professor Kirke's house which was looming over them as they played outside. "Why can't we play hide and seek again?" he asked.

Lucy, who sat under a tall tree reading a book, gazed at Edmund with disgust.

"I thought _you_ said it was a kid's game," Peter replied nonchalantly as he prepared to bowl the ball again.

Susan smiled at Edmund with genuine friendliness, "And besides, we could all use the fresh air."

"It's not like there isn't air inside," the boy muttered.

"Are you ready?" Peter called from his pitcher's position several yards away from Edmund.

"Are _you_?" the younger boy taunted, smacking his bat on the ground a couple of times.

The elder brother bowled the ball smoothly, and Edmund swung the bat at full force, making contact with the ball with a satisfying crack.

Before anyone could see where it was going, the cricket ball flew through the air and crashed into a window on one of the upper floors of the Professor's mansion.

Edmund's jaw dropped open, and Lucy tore her gaze from her book, giving the boy a smug smirk.

With their hearts in their throats, the Pevensies rushed up to where they thought the ball had landed and upon inspecting the damage, they could tell that the cricket ball had broken through the stain glass window, leaving a fist sized hole, and knocked over a suit of armor that was on display in the hall.

"Well done, Ed," Peter muttered miserably as he observed the destroyed suit of armor.

"You bowled it!" Edmund replied defensively.

Suddenly, a high pitched voice screamed from somewhere downstairs. "What on earth is going on up there?"

"The Macready!" Susan cried.

"Come on!" Peter shouted as he fled down the corridor with Edmund, Lucy, and Susan right behind him.

The children ran across halls and up and down various stairs, trying to lose the housekeeper, but Mrs. Macready's footsteps seemed to be coming from all directions. Somehow, Edmund got the lead, and he led his siblings to the spare room with the wardrobe. He ran to the wardrobe and swung the little door open while everyone else looked reluctant.

"Come on!" he shouted, motioning the wardrobe as if it was their last resort.

"You've got to be joking," Susan muttered but even as she said that, she inched forward toward the wardrobe as the clacking noise of Mrs. Macready's footsteps got louder and louder in the corridor.

All four children shoved their way into the wardrobe and Peter, being the last one, left the door open just a crack where he could watch the knob of the room door turn.

"Get back!" someone hissed, dragging Peter deeper into the wardrobe by the back of his shirt.

"Ouch! Let go!"

"You're on my foot!"

"Move!"

"Don't push!"

Susan shrieked as she stumbled over one of her sibling's foot and instinctively reached out for the nearest object to right herself with and ended up grabbing Peter, causing them both to fall backwards onto the ground which was blanketed by a thin layer of snow. They both gasped, feeling the coldness through their clothes and quickly jerked their heads to look over their shoulders.

"Impossible," the girl breathed, gazing up at the clear blue sky with wide eyes.

As the two eldest Pevensies took in the view of the forest in wonder, Lucy stepped around them quietly, wearing a cheeky grin. "Don't worry," she said, getting their attentions. "I'm sure it's just your imagination."

Peter struggled with his words for a moment, his mouth twitching into a sheepish and apologetic smile, "I—I don't suppose saying we're sorry would quite cover it."

"No, it wouldn't," Lucy replied thoughtfully before suddenly pulling out a snowball from behind her back and nailing her brother in the face with it. "But that might!" she laughed as Peter recoiled.

Hastily wiping the melting snow from his neck, Peter laughed too and gathered a handful of snow also before hurtling it at Lucy.

The forest echoed with their giggles and delighted shrieks as a snowball fight ensued between Lucy, Peter, and Susan, but Edmund on the other hands was staring off into the distance in a sort of daze at two pale hills that rose up beyond the woods.

Susan, not noticing how distracted the boy was, playfully hit him in the arm with a snowball, effectively snapping him out of his trance.

"Ow!" Edmund cried, rubbing his arm and gazing at Susan moodily. "Stop it!"

His outburst caused everyone to pause what they were doing and look at him questioningly. The youngest boy seemed even more irritable than usual.

As Peter studied his pouty face and then glanced over at Lucy, he quickly realized something that made his blood boil, "You little liar!"

"You didn't believe her either!" Edmund snapped back.

Peter ignored him. "Apologize to Lucy," he ordered.

Lucy perked up expectantly, but Edmund only glared at her with a peculiar type of resentment.

Running out of patience quickly, Peter took a threatening step toward Edmund, "Say you're sorry!"

Edmund stumbled back a little, keeping distance from him brother. "All right! I'm sorry," he said to Peter rather than Lucy, though the apology seemed more out of fear than actual guilt.

"That's all right," Lucy's smirk widened mischievously, and she repeated Edmund's words back to him. "Some little children just don't know when to stop pretending."

"Oh, very funny," Edmund muttered, making a face at Lucy.

For the time being, the subject seemed to have been dropped, and Susan cautiously shifted a little in the direction the children had come, "Maybe we should go back."

Edmund's mood seemed to have immediately changed as his eyes widened for a brief moment before he suggested almost amicably, "Shouldn't we at least take a look around?"

Peter put an arm around Lucy and smiled down at her, "I think Lucy should decide."

Lucy's face lit up with joy, "I'd like you all to meet Mr. Tumnus!"

"Well, then Mr. Tumnus it is," the eldest Pevensie agreed cheerfully.

The way Peter was acting as if he was completely innocent in the whole not-believing-in-Lucy ordeal made Edmund want to hit him, but he clenched his teeth instead and only glowered at him out of the corner of his eyes.

"But we can't go hiking in the snow, dressed like this!" Susan cried, shivering as she hugged her arms around herself.

"No," Peter murmured thoughtfully before coming up with an idea. He went back into the wardrobe and pulled out some of the coats hanging from the hooks. "But I'm sure the professor wouldn't mind us using these." Handing a coat to Lucy, who put it on eagerly, he turned to Susan with a slightly smug look. "Anyway, if you think about it _logically_ , we're not even taking them out of the wardrobe." Then, he threw a grey coat with a furry collar to Edmund.

The other boy barely caught it and looked at it with disgust. "But that's a girl's coat!" he complained.

"I know," Peter replied, keeping a straight face.

The look in Edmund's eyes was utter loathing, but Peter paid no attention to it and followed Lucy as she started leading their way through the woods.

* * *

"And lots and lots of lovely food and—and," Lucy was saying excitedly as she led her siblings over a large snow covered just a little ways away from Mr. Tumnus' cave home, "And we're have lots and lots of…" Suddenly she fell silent and froze in her tracks as she looked up and saw the door of the faun's house torn in an awkward angle as if someone had forced their way in.

"Lu?" Peter called worriedly.

A horrid fear squeezed her heart as Lucy bolted down the hill as fast as her little legs could carry her in the snow and arrived at the entrance of the cave.

The once cozy home that Lucy had had tea in was now completely ruined. The furniture was scattered and had claw markings on them; books were knocked off of the shelves, their pages shredded on the floor; dented pots and pans and shattered pieces of a tea cups littered the ground near the kitchen. One of the windows was broken, letting in the cold wind which swept through the dark house, rustling the torn curtains. The place felt so very lonely.

"Who would do something like this?" Lucy whispered, on the verge of tears while she walked among the carnage.

As Edmund wandered into the house, he accidentally stepped on something and bent down to pick it up. It was a painting of an old faun that was ripped down the middle by a massive claw mark from an animal that Edmund didn't want to meet.

The merry mood that had accompanied the Pevensies as they made their way to Mr. Tumnus' home was totally gone and replaced by a cold fear. The hairs on the back of Peter's neck stood up and he suddenly felt as if he and his siblings were being watched.

"Oh my, Tumnus was right. You _did_ show up."

The new and very close voice caused Lucy to let out a gasp that sounded a little more like a quiet shriek towards the end.

In one of the few chairs in the house that was still intact sat a girl around Peter or Susan's age who had spoken. Dressed in a hooded, medieval attire, she was so quiet and still that they hadn't noticed her until now. She sat in a rather casual, askew way with her legs thrown over one of the armrests and her back leaning against the other, a way of sitting that probably would have made the Pevensies' mother scold them, but at least she appeared relatively ordinary, very much like another human being.

At this point, seeing someone who looked so biologically normal and who couldn't have possibly been responsible for the massive claw marks all over the cave was a huge relief to Lucy and Edmund who have both encountered some rather odd people in Narnia. She didn't appear to have any obvious animal parts and other than her old fashioned clothing, she could easily pass off as a normal person. At least, that's the feeling they got until they noticed that next to her, on the ground, laid a long bow of dark wood and a quiver full of arrows.

"Who are you and where's Mr. Tumnus?" Peter demanded, still not totally trusting the stranger despite her mundane appearance. If she was a threat, defending his siblings would prove quite a challenge considering Peter didn't have a weapon of any sort, but he was going to try-or at least stall for time.

"You won't find Tumnus here," she answered in an almost nonchalant tone, swinging her legs off of the armrest and standing up. Her hair was in a messy braid, its color a light bronze that reminded Lucy of a lion's mane. "And if you must know my name, you can call me Auryon. By the way, stop being so stiff, I'm not going to hurt you for crying out loud." She rolled her eyes, but that didn't really offer the Pevensies much comfort.

"You know Mr. Tumnus? What happened to him?" Lucy exclaimed.

"I found this pinned up on the wall when I got here," Auryon handed over a rolled up piece of parchment to Peter who opened it and read it aloud, a frown etched onto his face.

 _Faun Tumnus is hereby charged with high treason against her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternizing with humans._

 _Signed,_

 _Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police_

 _LONG LIVE THE QUEEN_

At the end of the letter was a wolf paw print that looked like it was stamped in blood.

Susan shifted uncomfortably. "Now we _really_ should go back!" she suggested, gazing at the parchment skeptically.

"But what about Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy objected, looking at Peter with pleading eyes.

The elder girl sighed exasperatedly, "If he was just arrested for being with a human, I don't think there's much we can do."

Lucy now wore an expression of hurt and betrayal as she regarded Susan. "You don't understand, do you? _I'm_ the human," the little girl grimaced while looking at the last line of the parchment message. "She must have found out he helped me."

Edmund instantly shrunk back and tried to keep out of the conversation, and he succeeded; his siblings were far too worried about Mr. Tumnus to pay attention to the strangely guilty look on Edmund's face.

"Maybe we should call the police," Peter was saying.

"These _are_ the police," Susan waved the parchment in Peter's face. Then she regarded Auryon with sudden suspicion, "And how do we know we can trust _her_?"

Peter shrugged, "She says she knows the faun."

Before Susan could point out that that was an _awful_ excuse to trust Auryon, the bronze haired girl chimed in sarcastically.

"Sure, I came to arrest you, but I didn't bother to bring any of my wolf friends who would surely make the job a lot less of a hassle," Auryon sighed and looked away, but but it didn't seem like she necassarily blamed Susan for distrusting her. Tugging a little handkerchief out of her long overcoat, Auryon shifted her gaze to Lucy, her voice a lot more genuine this time, "Tumnus gave this to me to hand back to his little friend, so here. I got it from him just before they took him away. You're just as he described, Lucy."

Lucy grasped the handkerchief in her small hands, squeezing it tightly.

"Don't worry, Lu," Peter tried to reassure the depressed girl, "We'll think of something."

"Why?" Edmund suddenly asked, catching everyone's attention. He'd put a lot of thought into his words, deciding on how best not to seem suspicious while also trying to make his siblings forget about the faun. "I mean, he's a criminal!" Now that he said it out loud, it didn't sound very convincing at all.

Auryon's eyes flashed at him with an unreadable expression and for a moment, Edmund was sure she had seen through him but instead of calling him out on it like he feared, she merely stepped a little closer to him, her eyes narrowing after a long pause, "…Why are you wearing a girl's coat?"

If they hadn't just been discussing the matter of Tumnus' arrest, Peter, Susan, and Lucy would have laughed at the face Edmund made when he heard those words

"For your information, it was the only coat that was left!" A blatant lie, but Auryon didn't push it and just moved on, wearing an infuriatingly amused smirk as she picked up her bow and attached the quiver to her belt before stepping out into the light of the day from the darkness of Tumnus' cave.

"Are you coming?" she called over her shoulder at the Pevensies.

"Tell us what happened to Mr. Tumnus," Lucy said.

"I will, but not here," Auryon hiked up a dune of snow and turned back to look at them. "I'm surprised you even came back but since you're here, it's probably best if we go someplace more secluded."

Susan and Edmund were skeptical, but Lucy marched determinedly up the snow dune accompanied by Peter.

"Are you crazy?" Susan hissed, rushing forward to grab the sleeve of Peter's coat. "We don't even know her!"

"How do we know we're not being led into a trap?" Edmund added.

"She knows Mr. Tumnus!" Lucy argued. "And she had my hanky."

"I can hear you!" Auryon called from the other side of the snow dune, way too far away for a normal person to have been able to hear the Pevensies' hushed argument. Her head poked up from behind the dune as she looked down at the children, the beginnings of an annoyed frown on her face, "Do I really look that menacing to you, hmm?"

"Well, it's not like we were raised being told that it's okay to just casually hand ourselves over to strangers," Susan countered.

"Tell that to your sister," Auryon replied to Susan while raising an eyebrow at Lucy. After a pause as the Pevensies fell silent and exchanged worried glances, she exhaled deeply, looking a bit like she regretted bringing it up, and forced a subject change. "Look, if I wanted to kill you, I would have shot you all before you could even step foot out of that house," she pointed at Tumnus' home while rubbing the ends of her arrows with her other hand. "And if I wanted to lure you somewhere alive, would I be trying so hard to coax you nicely instead of just taking one of you hostage to make the rest move?"

Neither Susan nor Edmund were able to reply with anything but reluctant expressions, so Peter started climbing the dune with Lucy clutching onto his arm. Susan and Edmund wore highly unsatisfied faces as they followed.

"Sorry, let's just start over," Peter suggested once they'd met Auryon at the top of the hill and held out his hand, offering a shake, "I'm Peter."

A memory with Mr. Tumnus flashed across Lucy's mind, and she remember that Narnians didn't seem to understand handshakes, and she was about to tell Peter so when much to her pleasant surprise, Auryon seemed to recognize the gesture.

An unreadable expression crossed the bronze haired girl's face before it passed almost immediately, and she shook Peter's hand, appearing familiar with the custom.

Lucy couldn't help but frown at the strange inconsistency between Auryon and the other Narnians the Pevensies have thus far encountered as she watched the huntress then shake hands with Susan.

When Auryon got to Edmund, the boy just looked at her coldly, which effectively made her recoil slightly away from him not with fear, but with a sense of calculated caution.

"O…kay, then," Auryon drawled, backing away from Edmund and sweeping her gaze over all of the children. "Shall we go?"

* * *

The journey wasn't over until nightfall, and the party had walked a long way through the forest. One could say that the scenery during the walk was quite breathtaking and unlike anything the Pevensies have seen in England, but when they climbed over a small hill and saw down in the valley a cozy shelter-like structure on the frozen river below, the warm light coming from the shelter was the most welcoming sight they could have hoped for after such a tiring and cold trip.

Throughout the walk, Auryon hadn't made much conversation and only spoke when someone else spoke to her first, which was mostly Lucy's questions about where they were going and where Mr. Tumnus had been taken, to which Auryon only gave frustratingly vague responses.

"If you're not one of _her_ people," Lucy was saying, carefully using pronouns to address Tumnus' arrestor, as Auryon led the Pevensies down the hill toward the dam-like structure, "then who are you exactly?"

"Have you forgotten my name already?" Auryon feigned hurt.

"No," Lucy quickly backpedaled, not seeming to realize that the elder girl was only joking. "I just wanted to know what you do and… how you met Mr. Tumnus and…"

"I didn't know him that well, personally," Auryon said, offering to help the Pevensies cross a particular slippery part of the frozen river, but Lucy was the only one who actually accepted her assistance. "In fact, I just met him two days ago."

Susan glared at Peter and muttered something that sounded like a mockingly sarcastic parroting of "she says she knows the faun."

"But I was familiar with his father," Auryon continued, either not hearing Susan's comment or pretending not to hear it, "a great conversationalist and quite a skilled soldier. A very kind faun, also."

Something didn't sound right to Lucy. Didn't Mr. Tumnus say his father fought in a war over a hundred years ago? Although she knew her question wasn't exactly the most polite, the small girl couldn't help but wonder, "If you don't mind me asking… how old are you?"

Auryon paused, halting in her steps, and Lucy and Peter almost walked into her. She was silent for a short time, but at last she turned her head back half way to smile eerily at Lucy, "I lost count a long time ago."

Judging by the look on the Pevensies' faces, it was clear they weren't sure whether or not to believe her answer, but Auryon didn't try much to convince them of her honesty and simply moved on to another topic.

"Since you asked, I'm a hunter," she explained, leading the children toward the cozy structure on the river. The aroma of something cooking drifted from the dam and made them all realize how hungry they were after their long journey. "I rid beasts from the land, and that's all that's important for you to know now."

She didn't elaborate more and as if on cue, they arrived at what appeared to be the entrance to the dingy, messy-but sturdy-structure. At the door, stood a beaver on his hind legs, his eyes more alert and intelligent than the Pevensies thought was possible for an animal.

Only then did any of the children realize that the shelter was an _actual_ beaver dam.

"Oh, thank goodness ya came back," the beaver spoke, much to Lucy, Peter, Susan, and Edmund's shock, and waddled towards them. "I's just about ta go out lookin' for ya!"

Auryon cracked a smile at the animal, "Perhaps you were right, Beaver, you should have gone to find them yourself. Their distrust in me was astounding."

Lucy stared at the talking beaver with wonder, while her siblings didn't know how to react to the animal. "You said you're a hunter!" the youngest girl cried accusingly at Auryon.

"I hunt _beasts_ ," the bronze haired girl repeated in clarification. "There's a difference between a beaver and a monster."

"Lucy Pevensie." Mr. Beaver said gazing up at said girl with dark, large eyes. "Isn't she just as Tumnus described?" he asked, nudging Auryon.

"Quite similar indeed," Auryon observed before introducing the beaver to the Pevensies. "This is the home of Mr. Beaver. He has been my host for some time, and he shall now be yours as well."

From somewhere inside the dam, a lady's voice was heard shouting, "Beaver, are they back? I've been worried sick!" A female beaver stepped out of the dam, scanning the surroundings for her husband and Auryon. "If anything happened to Auryon, I-" she cut off abruptly upon seeing the Pevensies standing before her and quickly finished in a hushed voice, "oh… by the stars..."

Lucy beamed up at Peter excitedly at the second beaver's reaction.

Mrs. Beaver slowly approached the children, her eyes lit with delight, "Oh, I never thought I'd live to see this day!" When they—Peter, Susan, and Lucy at least; Edmund kept glancing over his shoulder—smiled at her, she started to hastily brush herself. "Look at my fur!" she cried, exasperated and struggling to make herself look presentable but quickly giving up. "Oh well, come inside, everybody! We'll see if we can get you some food."

After she turned her tail and went back into the dam, Mr. Beaver invited the guests to go in first. "Hope Auryon didn' give ya too much o' scare," he said to the Pevensies with a chuckle as the huntress stepped into the house, "The lass can be a lil' forceful sometimes."

"I may not remember how old I am, Beaver, but I'm certainly sure that I am older than _you_ , so please refrain from calling me 'lass,'" Auryon responded over her shoulder, but her voice didn't hold any real annoyance, and it almost sounded as if she was only saying it because she was used to it.

Lucy, Peter, and Susan followed her into the dam, but Edmund paused before entering and sneaked a glance out of the corners of his eyes, gazing off into the distance at two snowy hills situated beyond the woods.

Mr. Beaver followed his gaze and commented in monotone, "Enjoyin' the scenery, are we?"

Reluctantly tearing his eyes away from the hills, Edmund didn't respond to the beaver and ducked into the dam.

* * *

The ceiling of the dam was barely tall enough for Peter to stand up straight under but despite its size, the structure wasn't as cramped as it was cozy. A merry fire burned beneath a boiling kettle, providing enough warmth for the children to take off their heavy coats, and the dam was well lit and neatly furnished. Mrs. Beaver hobbled off to the kitchen with Auryon while Lucy, Peter, and Susan sat with Mr. Beaver at their small dining table. Seeing as there wasn't a lot of room around the table, Edmund stayed off in a corner near the door by himself, not participating much in the discussion the others had.

"Isn't there anything we can do to help Tumnus?" Peter asked Mr. Beaver grimly.

"They'll've taken 'im to the Witch's house," Mr. Beaver explained while Auryon arrived from the kitchen, chewing a piece of dried apricot while at the same time carrying a plate of said fruit.

She noticed Edmund sitting in the corner gloomily and casually offered him the plate, "Want some?"

Taking in the unattractive color and wrinkly appearance of the food, Edmund shook his head disinterestedly to which Auryon sighed, rolling her eyes, and set the plate down on the table for Mr. Beaver to enjoy.

"And ya' know what they say," Mr. Beaver continued, his tone low, "there's few who go through 'em gates that come out again."

Hope left Lucy and Peter's eyes, and Mrs. Beaver came from the kitchen at that moment to try and cheer up the dim mood. Presenting a plate of fried fish and potato on the table, she announced brightly, "Fish 'n chips!"

The fish still had their eyeballs in and their scales hadn't even been scraped off. Clearly, the dish wasn't meant for human consumption.

The fish and chips did little to lighten the atmosphere, so Mrs. Beaver placed a paw on Lucy's shoulder comfortingly, "But there's hope, dear, lots of hope." She side-eyed her husband, expecting him to say something as well.

Auryon, leaning next to the fire, turned her head in the direction of the dining table, wearing an entertained smirk, "Beaver, must you frighten them like that? You are really too cruel."

Hearing Auryon's comment and seeing Mrs. Beaver's signals, Mr. Beaver nearly choked on his drink in his haste to agree, "Oh, yeah! There's a right bit more 'an hope!" Slamming his cup down on the table, he leaned across the table towards the Pevensies, lowing his voice even further, " _Aslan_ is on the move."

Despite having no clue as to who Aslan was, the sound of the name left a warmth in the air, enveloping Lucy, Peter, and Susan in a blanket of protection and peace.

It didn't quite have the same effect on Edmund, however, as he got up from where he sat and approached the table, a frown on his face as he untactfully disrupted the mood, "Who's Aslan?"

Laughter erupts from Mr. Beaver and he slaps the table, cackling, "'Who's Aslan!' Ya cheeky lil' blighter!"

Mrs. Beaver nudged him uncomfortably.

Auryon regarded the Pevensies almost with a hint of empathy in her eyes as she smiled, "You _really_ don't know much, do you?"

"Well, we haven't exactly been here very long," Peter pointed out.

The hunter's eyes flashed with intrigue, but it was hard to tell exactly what she found interesting.

Mr. Beaver was quite bewildered at this point, thinking that the Pevensies couldn't possibly be serious. "He's only the king o' the whole wood? The top geezer?"

No lightbulb of remembrance seemed to light up for any of the children.

"The real king o' Narnia?" Mr. Beaver cried exasperatedly, desperately searching for some sign of recognition.

"He's been away for a long while," Mrs. Beaver smiled, trying to help.

"But he's just gotten back!" Mr. Beaver went on, "And he's waitin' for ya near the Stone Table!"

"He's waiting for _us_?!" Lucy repeated, both she and her siblings becoming more and more confused by the second.

Mr. Beaver threw himself back into his chair, crying in disbelief, "You're bloomin' jokin'! They don't even know about the prophecy!"

"Well, then..?" Mrs. Beaver drawled expectantly.

"Look…" Letting out a sigh, Mr. Beaver calmed himself, "Aslan's return, Tumnus' arrest, the Secret Police-it's all happenin' because o' you!"

"You're blaming _us_?" Susan immediately demanded.

"No, not blaming," Auryon said, walking closer to the table. "It's a bit more complicated than that."

"There's a prophecy," Mr. Beaver began, eager to make the Pevensies understand, " _When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone sits at Cair Paravel in throne, the Lionheart will resume her hunt, and the evil time will be over and done._ "

"It rhymes," Lucy said thoughtfully.

After stuttering for a few seconds in frustration, Mr. Beaver spat out, "I know, but you're kinda missin' the _point_!"

"Your blood pressure, Beaver," Auryon said, patting his shoulder in an attempt to pacify him.

Mrs. Beaver took over with an explanation, "It has long been for told that two sons of Adam-" She pointed at Peter. "-and two daughters of Eve-" She pointed at Lucy and Susan. "-will defeat the White Witch, return the Lionheart's holy weapon to her and together, they'll restore peace to Narnia."

"And you think _we're_ the ones?" Peter gazed at the Beaver as if they were talking nonsense.

Auryon looked like she was going to open her mouth to say something, but Mr. Beaver quickly jumped forth, shouting, "Well, ya _better_ be, because Aslan's already fittin' out your army!"

"Our _army_?" Lucy repeated with horror.

Susan turned her eyes to Peter, "Mum sent us away so we _wouldn't_ get caught up in a war."

Sensing that the Pevensies have been frightened into shock by Mr. Beaver, Auryon held up her hands, "Let's-everyone just calm down."

"I think you've made a mistake," Peter said, face pale. "We're not _heroes_!"

"We're from Finchley!" Susan added, as if that would further discredit the Beavers' faith in them.

Silence settled in the dam as the Beavers exchanged matching looks of hopelessness.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Susan said coldly as she rose from the dining table, "but we _really_ have to go."

"Y-ya can't just leave!" exclaimed Mr. Beaver.

"He's right," Lucy protested, still sitting in her seat, "we _have_ to help Mr. Tumnus!"

"It's out of our hands," Peter rose from his seat as well and shook his head. "I'm sorry, but it's time the four of us were getting home. Ed?" When no response came from Edmund, the eldest Pevensie looked around the chamber, dread suddenly washing over him. " _Ed_?"

Lucy and Susan scanned the dam with their eyes but their brother was nowhere to be found.

"I'm going to kill him," Peter muttered after realizing that Edmund had fled.

"Ya may not have to," Mr. Beaver answered gravely, drawing all of their attentions. "Has Edmund ever been to Narnia before?"

Lucy's eyes widened and from the look on her face, Peter, Susan, and Auryon could guess what the answer was.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hurry!" Peter shouted to his accomplices as he led them through the deep snow, following the footprints Edmund left behind. Considering the fact that Edmund had left his coat at the Beavers' and was probably half freezing to death, it was a massive surprise that even while running, Peter, Susan, and Lucy couldn't catch up to him.

Large snowflakes had resumed their falling by the time Auryon, Peter, Lucy, Susan, and Mr. Beaver arrived at the edge of the woods where, across an expanse of frozen water, there were two massive hills and between them stood an ominous castle of ice.

Edmund's small figure could be seen in the distance, entering the tall and thin entry gate of the palace.

" _Edmund!"_ Lucy screamed, trying to call him back.

"Shh!" Mr. Beaver shushed urgently. "They'll hear ya!"

Peter gritted his teeth with determination and bolted for the gates, but Auryon's hand instantly shot out and snatched up the back of his coat, preventing him from taking another step toward the castle. The strength of her grip was highly unproportioned to her build and size, Peter noted begrudgingly.

The eldest Pevensie rounded on Auryon, his eyes furious, "Let go of me!"

"Please stop shouting," Auryon growled. Though her words were polite, the way she said them wasn't at all.

"Ya're playin' right into her hands!" Mr. Beaver whispered loudly.

"We can't just let him go!" Susan answered loudly.

"He's our brother!" Lucy added in a similar fashion.

Auryon muttered something under her breath about how "no one knew what the words 'stop shouting' meant," but her comment was mostly ignored by the others.

"He's the _bait_!" Mr. Beaver exclaimed which effectively caught the Pevensies' attentions and caused Peter to stop struggling in Auryon's grip. "The Witch wants all four o' ya!"

" _Why_?" demanded Peter.

"To _stop_ the prophecy from comin' true," Mr. Beaver lowered his voice. "To kill ya!"

The children were shocked into silence as they swept their horrified gazes toward the castle that loomed before them into which their brother had just voluntarily entered, the doors already closed behind him.

Susan stepped toward Peter, eyes suddenly accusing, "This is all your fault."

" _My_ fault?" Peter shouted back defensively.

"None of this would have happened if you'd just listened to me in the first place!" Susan screamed.

"Oh, so you knew this would happen?"

"I didn't know _what_ would happen," the girl glared at her brother coldly, "which is why we should have left while we still could!"

Auryon was about ready to clamp her hand over Peter's mouth before he could retort, surely with another unnecessarily loud shout, but Lucy beat her to putting a end to the fight.

"Stop it!" the youngest girl interjected, forcing her siblings to look at her. "This isn't going to help Edmund."

"She's right," Auryon admitted, finally letting go of Peter's coat. "He is probably already in the Witch's hands at this point. Only Aslan can help him now."

His lips pressed into a thin line, Peter reluctantly turned to look the bronze haired girl in the eyes after a long pause, "Then take us to him."

A faint smile crept onto Auryon's face, not exactly a happy or friendly one, but one that was satisfied or mildly impressed that Peter was giving her a command, and she lowered in head in almost a bow. "Of course. I suppose I should start calling you 'My King,' hmm?"

* * *

The trek back to the dam was quiet and solemn, and they'd nearly gotten back without event when Auryon suddenly perked up, halted in her tracks, and tilted her head upward like an animal catching a scent.

"What is it?" Lucy asked.

"Wolves."

On cue, an eerie howl rose into the night air and judging by its loud volume, it its owner was way too close to the Pevensies for comfort.

The children tensed, and Auryon narrowed her eyes at the shadows of the woods before getting down on her hands and knees to press her ear against the ground. A second later, she rose from the ground, notched an arrow, aiming into the darkness, "They're coming for you. Run."

"Go, go!" Mr. Beaver dashed through the snow to lead the panicking children to the dam while Auryon took rearguard, following as best as she could while keeping her bow up and the arrow aimed at places where wolves may decide to ambush.

When the cozy little house came in sight, they all nearly tripped down the hill in their haste to get to it. Mr. Beaver threw open the door, giving Mrs. Beaver, who was cleaning up dinner, a terrible fright. "Hurry, Mama! They're after us!"

"Ooh, right then!" Quickly dropping what she was doing, Mrs. Beaver began to dig around in the kitchen cabinets.

Peter stared at her with wide eyes, "What's she doing?"

"Oh, you'll thank me later," Mrs. Beaver called over her shoulder has she jerked a few loaves of bread from the drawer and threw them into a sack. "It's a long journey, and Beaver can get pretty cranky when he's hungry."

Mr. Beaver shook his head impatiently, "I'm cranky now!"

The Pevensies and Auryon all but scrambled around the house, looking for food and supplies to pack. "Do you think we'll need jam?" Susan asked, finding a bottle of said food in a cupboard.

"Only if the Witch sells toast!" Peter replied sarcastically.

Auryon paused to listen to what was going on outside and heard the loud panting and sniffing of wolves around the dam. "We're surrounded."

Lucy let out a shriek as a snapping noise came from the wall beside her and dried mud cracked, falling away from the side of the house, leaving the tiny spaced between the sticks used to build the dam exposed.

"Lucy, look out!" Peter shouted, tugging Lucy away from the small openings just as a wolf's paw shot in, clawing around violently before quickly withdrawing.

"Move!" Auryon shouting, shoving Peter and Lucy back away from the hole before notching an arrow and shooting through the tiny gap just as a wolf's eye came into view, looking into the dam.

The arrow nailed the wolf in the eye and it let out a loud yelp, retreating from the hole.

"This way!" Mr. Beaver shouted, having opened a hidden escape hatch located on the floor of a large cabinet.

The Beavers went through first, followed by the Pevensies and then Auryon who closed the cabinet, shut the trap door, and stuck an arrow through the handles in the hopes of keeping the trapdoor locked from the wolves or at least to buy some more time to run.

"Badger and I dug this," Mr. Beaver panted as he ran through the dimly lit tunnel. "It comes up right near his place."

"You told me it led to your mum's!" Mrs. Beaver replied.

After rushing through several twisted turns and stumbling over large roots that stuck out of the earth, the party arrived at what appeared to be a dead end. Peter frantically looked around while the Beavers argued.

"You should have brought a map!" Mrs. Beaver shrieked.

"There wasn't room next to the jam!" Mr. Beaver retorted before leaping up to grab a root hanging down from the wall and pulling himself out of a hole in the ceiling of the tunnel.

They exited to a quiet clearing of the forest and used a nearby barrel to block the way they'd come, just in case the wolves made it into the tunnel. In the process of backing away from the tunnel, Lucy tripped over something and fell on her bottom right in the middle of a group of stone animal statues.

While everyone caught their breath, Mr. Beaver's face fell as he walked up to a badger statue and gently touched its cold stone arm, brushing away some snow that had gathered on it.

Mrs. Beaver came up behind her husband and lowered her head with remorse, "I'm so sorry, my dear."

"We have to keep moving. Now," Auryon recomposed herself the quickest, but none of her companions moved in response to her suggestion.

"He was my best mate," Mr. Beaver muttered, shaking his head in despair at the badger.

Mrs. Beaver looked at the bronze haired hunter sadly, "Please just give him a moment, dearie."

Only then did the Pevensies realize that all of the statues appeared to be cowering from something, all of them wearing frozen expressions of horror on their faces.

"What happened here?" Peter asked stiffly.

"A most regrettable encounter," Auryon's eyes were blank as she surveyed the stone animals. A tiny crunch of snow suddenly caused her to whip her head in the direction of the noise and notch an arrow in caution.

"This is what becomes of those who cross the Witch," a little red fox stepped out of the shadows, smiling and unafraid of the arrow Auryon was aiming at him.

Auryon let out a short breath, lowering her bow and slumping her shoulders in relief that it wasn't a wolf, but Mr. Beaver didn't seem to differentiate much between wolves and foxes. He aggressively treaded toward the fox, ready to put up a fight, "Take one more step, traitor, and I'll chew you to splinters."

The fox laughed lightly as Mrs. Beaver restrained her husband, "Relax, I'm one of the _good_ guys."

"Yeah, well you look an awful lot like one of the bad guys," Mr. Beaver retorted.

His smirk never leaving his face, the fox sighed with understanding, "An unfortunate family resemblance, but we can argue breeding later. Right now, we've got to move."

Suddenly, the echoes of the wolves' barking in the tunnel were loud and near, and everyone had doubts that the barrel will be enough to keep the pursuers at bay.

Peter frantically turned to the fox, "What do you have in mind?"

The fox smiled slyly and gazed up a nearby tall tree. "Get up there. I'll handle the rest."

The Pevensies' eyes widened, but they knew there really wasn't a choice for whether or not to accept the fox's help. One by one, the company pulled themselves up the tree and settled on one of the lowest branches-which was still pretty high off the ground. The wolves won't notice them unless they look straight up.

As expected, seconds later the Secret Police burst from the tunnel, easily knocking the barrel away and flowing out into the clearing to surround the fox, the only living creature that was loitering around.

Although he cowered as the wolves circled him, the fox still managed a cheerful tone of voice, "Greetings, Gents! Lost something, have we?"

"Don't patronize me. I know where your allegiance lies," the alpha snarled, not buying the fox's innocent act. "We're looking for some humans."

The fox laughed, "Humans? Here in Narnia? That's a bit of valuable information, don't you think?"

One of the wolves leapt forward and grabbed the little fox in its jaws, biting down so hard that the smaller animal yelped in pain.

Lucy would have gasped loudly and surely have given away her position if Peter hadn't clamped his hand over her mouth just in time.

"Your reward is your life," the alpha growled, "It's not much, but still. Where are the fugitives?"

The fox lowered his head and stayed quiet for a time before subtly gazing up at the Pevensies out of the corner of his eyes. Then, he made of show of giving up with a loud sigh and feigned reluctance before saying, "North. They ran north."

The alpha wolf snarled, still not completely trustful of the answer, and ordered his pack members, "Smell them out."

After tossing the injured fox aside, the Secret Police took off north and were gone within seconds, leaving the clearing still and silent.

The Pevensies, Beavers, and Auryon got down from their hiding spot when they were sure that wolves weren't coming back. Mrs. Beaver rushed to help the fox while Mr. Beaver and Auryon made a warm, albeit somewhat pathetic, fire which the Pevensies gathered around.

As his wounds were treated, the fox gazed over at the animals that were turned to stone, "They were helping Tumnus, but the Witch got here before I did."

The Pevensies chewed their rations, looking uncomfortable. When the fox let out some noises of pain as Mrs. Beaver tried to tighten his bandages, Lucy looked at him with concern, "Are you all right?"

"Well, I wish I could say that bark was worse than the bite. Ow!" the fox's chuckles cut off abruptly as he yelped, instinctively twisting away from Mrs. Beaver.

"Oh, stop squirming," she scolded, "You're worse than Beaver on bath day."

Mr. Beaver laughed quietly and leaned toward the Pevensies, whispering, "Worst day of the year."

Seconds later, once the bandaging was finished, the fox pulled himself to his feet again and nodded at Mrs. Beaver, "Thank you for your kindness, but I'm afraid that's all the cure I have time for."

"You're leaving?" Lucy asked, her disappointment quite evident.

The fox bowed to her, "It has been a please, My Queen, and an honor. But time is short, and Aslan himself has asked me to gather more troops.

The Beavers gasped, and Mr. Beaver's eyes sparkled with amazement, " _You've_ seen Aslan."

For the first time, the fox gazed directly at Auryon and replied to Mr. Beaver in a slightly amused tone, "You have someone here who has _also_ seen him."

"Yes, yes," Mrs. Beaver waved a paw dismissively, "but the dear likes to keep hushed up about it-won't tell us a thing." Clasping her paws together, she smiled delightedly at the fox, "So, what's he like?"

When Auryon didn't say anything and just wore a subtle, knowing smile before turning her head away from the conversation, the fox giggled, his eyes genuine and warm as he told Mrs. Beaver, "Like _everything_ we've ever heard. You'll be glad to have him by your side in the battle against the Witch."

"But we're not planning on fighting any witch," muttered Susan.

The fox looked at Peter, a bit worried, "But surely, King Peter? The prophecy…"

"We can't go on without you," Mr. Beaver added.

Being referred to as "King" by Auryon and then by the fox made an uncomfortable lump form in Peter's throat, and he threw a stick into the fire. "We just want our brother back."

* * *

Edmund huddled in a corner of a prison cell in the White Witch's castle, having been thrown in there shortly after arriving. He was cold and hungry and quite frankly really missed his siblings-Peter included.

Some food was left for him, a chunk of stale bread, which he tried to eat only because he was desperate, but it tasted so disgusting that he coughed and spit it back out. He reached for the cup of water placed next to the bread, but it was frozen solid in the cup. Scowling at it, Edmund dropped the cup and looked away, bringing his numb knees to his chest and rocking back and forth. Heavy chains attached to the floor bound his ankles, and it was so cold that frost appeared on the metal shackles.

Under the wrath of the Witch, Edmund had no choice but to spill information about his siblings' whereabouts, which clearly still wasn't enough to convince the Witch to not treat him like a prisoner. Not only was he physically in pain but also emotionally every time he thought about those wolves going after Peter, Susan, and Lucy.

From somewhere to Edmund's right, a feeble voice called out, startling the boy at first for he did not know that there were other prisoners, "If… If you're not going to eat that…"

On the other side of the cell, there was a hole in the ice wall through which a miserable faun with shaggy hair and a goatee was shakily pointing at Edmund's stale bread.

Immediately, Edmund picked up the bread and began to slowly and torturously scoot across the freezing floor to get to the faun.

"I'd get up, but my legs…" the faun reached out for the bread and hungrily bit into it once Edmund placed it in his hands.

The boy sat back but couldn't help but stare at the faun's goat legs which were covered in frost and were probably just as numb and close to falling off as Edmund's. After a moment, he dared to guess, "Mr. Tumnus…?"

"What's left of him," Mr. Tumnus answered absently, nibbling on the bread. When Edmund didn't say anything more, the faun regarded him with a more careful look. "… You're Lucy Pevensie's brother."

Edmund shifted uncomfortably, wishing that Mr. Tumnus wouldn't bring up Lucy, "I'm Edmund."

Mr. Tumnus blinked at him, "You have the same nose."

Not responding, Edmund just wiped his nose and looked away.

"Is your sister all right?" Mr. Tumnus' eyes were so earnest and filled with genuine concern that Edmund was taken aback and continued to stay quiet until Mr. Tumnus repeated more forcefully, "Is she safe?"

"I-I don't know."

Sudden barking of wolves and loud footsteps that echoed nearby startled both of the prisoners and seconds later, the screeching gate of Edmund's cell slammed open. While Edmund and Mr. Tumnus scrambled away from each other to try to avoid looking suspicious, the Witch and her vile dwarf servant stormed in.

The Witch appeared highly irritated, her eyes carrying an even more threatening glint than usual, and Edmund honestly couldn't decide whether he was scared for his life or hopeful because the Witch's bad mood indicated that his siblings may have escaped.

"My police tore that dam _apart_ ," she spoke softly, approaching the boy's crouched figure and towering over him menacingly. "Your little family is nowhere to be found." Without warning, she grabbed Edmund by the collar, lifting him from the floor, "Where did they go?"

"I don't know!" Edmund cried, struggling in her grip.

The Witch casually tossed him aside and raised the wand she always carried, "Then you have no further use to me."

"W-wait!" Edmund shouted, feeling desperate, "There was someone else there too-besides the Beavers! A girl who says she's a hunter."

Mr. Tumnus, who was previously turned away minding his own business, looked up.

The Witch's eyes narrowed and something stirred in them, something that almost looked like controlled caution. "A _hunter_ , you say?"

Nodding, the boy wasn't sure if he'd made a horrible mistake telling her that or if the Witch's rare reaction should be taken as a good thing.

"Anything else?" she pointed her wand at him again.

Apparently, she wasn't planning on letting up with the interrogation at all, and terror seized Edmund all over again. "T-the Beavers said something about Aslan!"

Edmund's declaration effectively made the Witch freeze, her wand still raised, and the boy swore he saw a flicker of fear in her beady eyes. If hearing about Auryon didn't scare her, hearing Aslan's name definitely did. "Aslan…? Where?"

"I…"

"He's a stranger here, Your Majesty," Mr. Tumnus suddenly cut in, deciding that enough was enough, "He can't be expected to know anything-"

The dwarf servant knocked the faun back with a heavy staff causing Mr. Tumnus to yelp in pain and scoot away shamefully.

"I _said_ ," the Witch stared down at Edmund, "where is Aslan?"

Edmund hesitated, trembling as he glanced out of the edge of his eyes at Mr. Tumnus' pained expression which was practically silently pleading for Edmund to not say anything. "I-I don't know," the boy stuttered finally, "I left before they said anything. I wanted to see you!"

Mr. Tumnus' shoulders slumped with relief, but the Witch continued to gaze at Edmund with mistrust before shouting, "Guards!"

In response to the summon, two bulky and rather hideous ogres lumbered into the cell, "Your Majesty?"

Without turning around to face the ogre, the Witch ordered, "One of you, go upstairs and fetch the Argentum. Bring it to my sleigh."

One ogre bowed awkwardly and stomped back up the stairwell it came from.

To the remaining guard, the Witch said, gazing coldly at Tumnus, "Release the faun."

The ogre walked over to Mr. Tumnus' cell, clutching a large, rusted hammer, and bashed the shackles around the faun's hooves until they clattered apart. After unceremoniously grabbing the faun by the arms, the ogre lugging him to the Witch's feet.

"Do you know why you're here, faun?" the Witch questioned, her tone almost sweet.

Mr. Tumnus looked up boldly, "Because I believe in a free Narnia."

Mockingly raising an eyebrow as if she was impressed, the Witch correctly calmly, "You're here because _he_ ," she used her wand to gesture at the terrified Edmund, "turned you in… for sweeties."

Edmund's heart clenched as Mr. Tumnus stared at him, wide-eyed with betrayal.

The Witch smiled, enjoying the remorse felt by her two prisoners, and told her ogre guard, "Take him upstairs, and ready my sleigh." As Edmund raised his head to look at her, she watched him out of the corner of her eyes, "Edmund misses his family."

Afterwards, the ogre dragged Mr. Tumnus away like a sack of potatoes, and the Witch swept from the prison, slamming the door behind herself.


End file.
